CONFIDENTIAL
PS
FROM:
D C Wilson
86
DATE:
16 May 1984
CC:
PS/Mr Luce
PS/PUS
ひベット
Sir P Cradock
14
Mr Clift
Mr Burrows
Mr Houston
HONG KONG: SECRETARY OF STATE'S PENDING SPEECH
1.
I suggest a re-draft to page 3 of the draft where the
speech deals with the statement by UMELCO. I attach a draft
with the changes sidelined. The reasons for the changes are:
2.
(i) while making it clear that EXCO Unofficials
acted on their own initiative and in a 'non-governmental
role' to avoid too drastic a public rebuff which might
rebound to our disadvantage in dealings with EXCO and
in Hong Kong more generally; and
(ii) to avoid the implication that free speech may
not exist in Hong Kong at a later date.
On page 7 I suggest a minor change to the second paragraph to read as follows:-
''It is, of course, the case that Hong Kong has
not existed in the past, could not indeed have
survived for any substantial length of time, in
a state of hostility with China.''
P
This is to avoid a possible charge that we have forgotten
about the Cultural Revolution (or indeed a sustained policy
of Chinese confrontation in the 1920s). The present wording (''any period'') would not come across in Chinese as carrying
chi the intended meaning of a significant length of time.
Mr. Hum
+KKO 40. 31 40/31
1 7 MAY 1904
CONFIDENTIAL
21
D C Wilson